Saturday, December 20, 2014

All roads led to Capcom Cup on December 13, as the year-end championship pitted the top 16 Ultra Street Fighter IV players on the international Capcom Pro Tour against one another in a contest to crown the best player of 2014. In addition to the cup and the title, there was more than $50,000 in prize money at stake, including $30,000 (plus a bonus based on proceeds from a T-shirt sales campaign) for 1st place—by far the largest cash prize ever in the history of competitive Street Fighter. (Outside of Capcom Cup, a prize of $5,000 for 1st place would be considered a huge paycheck.)

Here were my personal highlights from the tournament:

Ryan Hart Goes Ryu

Ryan "Prodigal Son” Hart of the UK was the first qualifier for Capcom Cup, winning his ticket way back in March. Quite a lot happened between then and Capcom Cup in December, most notably the tour’s transition from Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012 to Ultra Street Fighter IV, which affected every player in some way. In Hart’s case, his main character, Sagat, already not a powerhouse in Ver. 2012, was downgraded for Ultra, and Hart was having a hard time moving past it.

Any time a game switches from one version to the next, every player understands that they face this possibility—that the tools they have come to depend upon could be taken away. When it happens, it can feel awfully unfair, to find essentially that the rules of the game have been rewritten to your disadvantage, your competitive capability crippled by something out of your control. But it’s rarely productive to get upset about it. You either adjust and make the best of it, or you find a different character (or even a different game) to play.

Hart did try competing more with some of his secondary characters, but, for his main in the bulk of the Ultra Street Fighter IV tournaments he entered, he continued to stick with Sagat—a character he clearly no longer believed in. That’s not good.

Furthermore, Japanese Sagat specialist Masato “Bonchan” Takahashi, after an already impressive 2013, was actually surging, following the release of Ultra Street Fighter IV, despite the changes to Sagat. Even just a year ago, there was an argument to be had over who the greatest Sagat in the world was—Bonchan or Ryan Hart. In 2014, there was no doubt that it was Bonchan, and Hart’s looked second-rate by comparison. At Capcom Cup, it would not have been a good look for any hopeful contender to enter as the second-rate version of another competitor present at the same event.

And so I loved Hart’s decision to go with Ryu instead. To me, this was Hart saying, Screw it. I did not become Europe’s top fighting game player of all time by relying on a character’s strength in place of my own.

Ryu is the one character that everybody knows how to fight as and against. He does have his favorable and unfavorable matchups, just like every character, but he’s not generally someone you go to as a counter-pick. So when Ryan Hart went to Ryu, it showed me that he was over playing the tiers or the character matchup charts, and was turning instead to his own skill, playing his own game, expressing his own ability through the purest character in the game.

His first-round opponent was one guy who has never worried too much about playing the matchups. The youngest competitor at Capcom Cup, Florida teenager Du “NuckleDu” Dang has had a lot of success with an unorthodox aggressive Guile that goes against all conventional wisdom on the “correct” way to play the character. Against Hart, he would go with his other character, Decapre, the newest, perhaps least understood addition to the game.

http://youtu.be/0qRlRHbeFlM

Although considered by some to be the least deserving qualifier into Capcom Cup, since he made it without winning any major tournaments in his own region, let alone internationally, NuckleDu knew how to work the crowd. Known for his penchant for performing taunts even in the biggest of matches, he got the crowd on its feet with his first one here. They roared even louder when Ryan Hart reciprocated. When Hart then lost that game, one got the sense that NuckleDu had been working not only the crowd but also his opponent, goading Hart into sinking to NuckleDu’s level. The next time NuckleDu went for it, Hart did not bite. Rather, he let the confidence on that last Shoryuken do the talking for him—the sickest moment in the tournament up to that point.

Hart’s next opponent was Japan’s Yusuke Momochi, the greatest Ken player in the world. These two had gone back and forth over their previous encounters, albeit those had been in different versions of the game and with different characters. This time, Hart kept it going with his Ryu, while Momochi, although capable with multiple characters, stuck with Ken.

Ryu vs. Ken is one of the classic matchups in all of Street Fighter—the oldest, in fact, dating back to the original 1987 arcade game, where they were the only two playable characters. Both characters have certainly changed a lot since then, but still this would be a match involving few tricks—truly, a pure contest to determine who was the stronger player.

http://youtu.be/QcaPy_MB-3o

Actually, it ended up being one of the least clean matches of the tournament. Momochi looked in his comfort zone for much of it, but then Ryan Hart, with that clutch factor that defines all the greats, would pull these crazy Ultra Combo comebacks to steal round after round. Again, it was not clean, maybe even the opposite—I’ve always hated Super and Ultra Combos on principle, as tools that nonsensically reward the player getting their ass kicked. But, like a true gamer, Hart seized the opportunity when he saw it.

Hart’s momentum would finally come to a halt against French rival Olivier “Luffy” Hay, who had had his number all year, but, still alive in the losers bracket of this double-elimination tournament, he ended up in a "double jeopardy" situation (sometimes, but not always, a sign that someone in charge screwed up the brackets), having to face Momochi for the second time in the same tournament.

http://youtu.be/fwv-gXFA9Eo

Some would say it was karma. After all the times Momochi had rounds stolen from him, he finally got one back. Despite the result, it was still an impressive run for Ryan Hart, who proved that he was not a second-rate anything.

The Hardest Fight in the Game . . . Solved in Under 10 Minutes!

The first of several ding-dong bouts—a match between two players considered legitimate favorites to win it all—was that between Evo 2011 champion Keita “Fuudo” Ai of Japan and Evo 2012 champion Seonwoo “Infiltration” Lee of South Korea.

Fuudo has been perennially one of the most dreaded opponents on the Street Fighter IV competitive circuit. He plays a distilled form of Fei Long, arguably the strongest character in the game. There is no waste whatsoever to Fuudo’s game, as he dominates the ground with Fei Long’s superior pokes, and discourages jump-ins with his own peerless anti-air reflexes. The strategy is, on paper, nearly without flaw, and needs not discriminate for any opponent. I’ve always said that, in order to overcome Fuudo, a player needs something intangible beyond mere skill—something more akin to inspiration. Otherwise, even if you were to execute your own strategy to perfection, every simulation you could run of “the perfect match” would still have Fuudo coming out on top.

That said, there is only one player on the tour that I would consider to exude a more demoralizing presence than even Fuudo, and that is Infiltration. The most complete player in Street Fighter IV, in my opinion, Infiltration was just about untouchable in 2012, and, even two years removed from “the year of Infiltration,” the memory of his dominance still lingers strong in opponents’ minds, mantling him with an aura of invincibility that eclipses even the dread that Fuudo inspires.

Infiltration was the first true “scientist” of Street Fighter IV, a player known to study up on his opponents, always consulting the notes on his phone, or conferring between games with his partner/coach at the time, fellow South Korean player Ryan “Laugh” Ahn—tactics that were then unheard of even at the highest levels in Japan. Although best known for his Akuma, Infiltration is recognized also for having an arsenal of secondary characters, including relative obscurities, such as Gouken and Oni. These are not exhibition match novelties; Infiltration will turn to them in legitimate competition, even in critical situations, such as when facing elimination at a major, and, more often than not, he’ll win with them. The only dimension to his game that was once considered lacking was his level of charisma, as a South Korean who formerly spoke very little English and came off as somewhat detached while being almost “too dominating.” But Infiltration even eventually figured that out. Facing American underdog Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez in front of a partisan US audience on the biggest stage in the world last year at Evo, Infiltration managed, with one inspired low-tier character choice, to instantly win the crowd. At Capcom Cup 2014 against Fuudo, Infiltration would bring to bear all of these facets to his game.

http://youtu.be/wjIJ-qGZNPk

Fuudo was, of course, going to go with Fei Long, but Infiltration had a deep bullpen of characters from which to select. He had already used Chun-Li in the first round to combat Brazil’s Eric Moreira “Chuchu” Silva, and, besides Akuma, he was also known to play Ryu, Hakan, Rolento, and Evil Ryu. Even for those who had followed Infiltration’s season closely, however, his pick against Fuudo came out of nowhere. He went with Elena—not one of his known secondary characters, maybe not even a tertiary character!

A new addition in Ultra Street Fighter IV, Elena was considered one of the game’s more ineffectual characters, even after Taiwan’s Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang nearly went the distance with her against Fuudo in the grand final of DreamHack Winter 2014, the last stop on the Capcom Pro Tour before Capcom Cup. That pick raised eyebrows when GamerBee pulled it out, but maybe the Taiwanese player knew something about the Elena-Fei Long matchup. And maybe Infiltration had spotted it too.

It’s one of the quirks of a game with such a large cast—that even a fairly low-tier character as Elena can actually match up well specifically against one of the strongest fighters in Fei Long. She’s not the better character, certainly, but her awkward attacks just happen to stick her limbs out in exactly the right places to foil Fei Long’s normally solid techniques.

What was all the more impressive was that Infiltration had allegedly only spent a day learning Elena, prior to taking her into that match against one of the toughest players in the world. That just goes to show how singularly awesome a player Infiltration is—1) that he figured out the matchup in so little time, and 2) that his fundamentals are so solid that he could cleanly outplay one of the world’s best while possessing only the rudiments of his own character.

Finally, this may have been bittersweet validation for the absent GamerBee. After working so hard all year to try to qualify for Capcom Cup, he was thwarted at the very end by Fuudo swooping in to claim the last ticket. But, with his final effort, GamerBee hit upon the answer to the perfect Fei Long, ultimately leaving it to others to see it through.

Super Effective!

Infiltration vs. Fuudo was immediately followed by an even more anticipated match, again between two Evo champions. This time, it was Evo 2013 winner Ho Kun Xian vs. Evo 2009 and 2010 champion Daigo “The Beast” Umehara. Neither had had their winningest year in 2014, but I would say that, more than any other top players, these two are the most passionate, the ones who invest the most of themselves in winning at Street Fighter. The amount of work they put in to perform is evident in their results: Xian competes at the highest level with Gen, possibly the hardest character to master, while Daigo is the No. 1 player on the Japanese arcade leaderboards, a ranking that is largely determined by the number of hours that a player commits to playing continuously at the arcade. But perhaps how much they care is even better reflected in how sincerely disappointed they look when they lose at big events. So you knew that these two players were going to go all-out to try to win Capcom Cup.

Their rivalry had become rather lopsided in Daigo’s favor ever since the release of Ultra Street Fighter IV. Xian’s main, Gen, had suffered in the transition, while Daigo had switched to Evil Ryu, considered by many to be the best character in the game. When they last fought not long ago at Razer’s CPT Asia Finals, Daigo thrashed Xian, and the matchup had looked almost unwinnable for the Gen master.

That’s probably why Xian didn’t go with Gen against Daigo at Capcom Cup 2014. Instead, he went with a counter-pick that must have taken Daigo completely by surprise.

http://youtu.be/oFsIzQtC65k

I don’t know if anybody saw the Dhalsim pick coming. It was a reasoned choice, though not an obvious one. Like Elena vs. Fei Long, this is another case where a character generally considered weak (Dhalsim) happens to possess just the right tools to handle a character otherwise considered very strong (Evil Ryu). But, more than that, Daigo, as a player, was believed to have a weakness to Dhalsim, having lost to that character at Evo 2014. Still, the Dhalsim-Evil Ryu match is hardly a free win for Dhalsim. Dhalsim takes away a lot of Evil Ryu’s options at long range, but all it takes is a single mistake to let Evil Ryu in, whereupon the advantage shifts completely.

Also, whatever his supposed weaknesses, Daigo is still Daigo; he’s not going to fall prey to any simple counter-pick tactic by a player using the character to only 50 percent. Most counter-pickers would more likely only be playing Dhalsim at closer to 25 percent, as this is another high-level character that takes a lot of dedication to play competently. But it just so happened that Xian’s Dhalsim was not strictly a counter-pick or pocket character. Most people watching wouldn’t have known this (because most people hadn’t heard of Xian back then), but, before he picked up Gen, Xian actually used Dhalsim as his original main. So he knew what to do with this character.

All in all, it was a brilliant play by Xian. Although the match actually ended up being pretty close, it had the look of a terrible performance by Daigo’s standard, as he was just never able to impose himself in his usual way against Dhalsim.

Afterward, Xian would catch a lot of flack for what many considered to be a “dishonorable” tactic—taking the “easy” way out with a favorable matchup against an opponent who wasn’t prepared for it, instead of relying on his own ability with his “own” character. I guess, to some, it was akin to a street fight between the world’s greatest karate fighter and the world’s greatest kung fu master, who then decided to use a gun—not explicitly against the rules, but still an offense against the purity of the sport.

I actually can somewhat appreciate their disappointment, but I think it has nothing to do with honor and rather stems from spectator attachment to the identities that players such as Xian and GamerBee have cultivated synonymous with their signature characters. One of the things that makes Street Fighter so captivating is the diversity of characters and matchups, but, when analysts debate how Gen or Adon fare at the highest levels, they’re really just basing it all on how Xian and GamerBee perform with those characters, because, in the real world, they are the only relevant competitors representing those characters. So if Xian were ever to abandon Gen, it could mean 1) the loss of a distinct sense of who Xian is as a player, if he went instead to a more common character already represented by other top players, and 2) the “death” of Gen, in the sense that that character would effectively no longer exist in high-level real-world Street Fighter IV.

Although I can appreciate that such an outcome would be a bummer, I personally have nothing but respect for how Xian and Infiltration both exercised real shrewdness in their preparations for Capcom Cup, readying characters in secret specifically to counter competitors that they knew would pose major obstacles. You have to remember that, although Xian and Infiltration, being from Asia, sometimes get grouped together with the Japanese players, they’re still too far removed geographically from actually being able to practice daily with the likes of Daigo, Fuudo, Bonchan, etc., who all get to train together in Tokyo. So how are they supposed to make names for themselves in the toughest region in the world, while not getting to enjoy the main benefit that their Japanese rivals get from competing in that region? Well, they do it through relentless self-motivated study, yes, but also with cunning and guile (no pun intended), playing the metagame with tactics rarely considered by the Japanese.

The Red Focus Heard ‘Round the World

Now in the losers bracket, Daigo’s next opponent was local NorCal resident Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez, who knew a thing or two himself about Evil Ryu.

Since the release of Ultra Street Fighter IV, PR Balrog had picked up Evil Ryu, having lost some faith in his signature Balrog (boxer) after Topanga World League, where the Japanese players were breaking down his offense in ways he hadn’t experienced stateside. But PR Balrog never seemed entirely comfortable while playing Evil Ryu either, and he promptly switched back to Balrog after losing his first game at Capcom Cup with Evil Ryu. It didn’t make any difference in his first-round match, which he lost anyway to his NorCal teammate Ricky Ortiz.

It looked like PR Balrog, once considered maybe the strongest Street Fighter IV player in the US, was going to end his 2014 unremarkably, as he ran into none other than Daigo Umehara in the losers bracket much earlier than anyone would have anticipated. Daigo had been considered the safe money to win the whole thing. It is said that, in a closed-entry competition like Capcom Cup, where the supposedly random elements have been removed, Daigo will always emerge as the honest best. Xian had already proven with his Dhalsim, however, that even a closed-entry tournament was not immune to surprises. Maybe PR Balrog too could show Daigo something he hadn't seen before.

http://youtu.be/NnkzQ11KKy8

That Red Focus!

Ultra Street Fighter IV, the most radically altered edition of Street Fighter IV, is less than a year old, and players are still figuring out how to properly integrate some of the new systems into their playbooks. Red Focus was early on recognized as a great offensive tool that armed a few characters with devastating new combos. Here, PR Balrog utilized the much more rarely seen defensive form of Red Focus to offensive purpose, and Daigo never saw it coming.

I’ll add, however, that Daigo looked beaten well before that Red Focus. This is a guy who made his legend by playing in the moment, never succumbing to it, but actually owning it. In high-level Street Fighter, there has long been this concept of the “Psychic DP,” a Dragon Punch/Shoryuken that is not performed as an anti-air or to complete a combo (these being the move’s two intended functions), but rather connects seemingly out of nowhere based purely on the user’s intuition. Daigo was always better at this psychic game than anybody else (such that, in Japan, the technique is commonly referred to as “Ume-Shoryu”), because, according to him, he never thinks about the consequences. In the match against PR Balrog, the opposite was true.

He won the first game convincingly, but, once PR Balrog picked up some momentum with a round in the second game, Daigo began to fold. Just like in his loss to John Choi at Evo 2014, you could see Daigo begin to tighten up, back down, and play from a position of fear. I’ve been in that situation myself, albeit at a much lower level, with nothing real at stake. But still I recognize the tells. He was looking ahead, thinking about the outcome instead of feeling the moment, processing the possibility of defeat, and, cracking under the pressure to win (which, in fairness, was surely greater on him than on any other player), he began playing not to lose, which doesn’t cut it at this level.

As for PR Balrog, he had pulled off a minor miracle with his upset victory over Daigo, but things would not be getting any easier for him, as he next had to play another former Evo champion, Fuudo.

http://youtu.be/q5aNJEVIGLs

Again, the odds were against the American, but he now had in his favor two things that he has always fed off: momentum and the crowd. PR Balrog was, by this point, the only remaining American in the tournament, and, as he began to feel his way to some offensive flurries—precisely the sort of inspired play that it takes to knock Fuudo off balance—the crowd was feeling it too with a "U-S-A" chant that further fueled his confidence. When PR Balrog is playing with that much belief in himself, there may not be anyone in the world who can beat him.

His run would finally end with his next match, after he forgot to set one of his buttons to "3 punches." Stick-wielding snobs used to try to tell me that these sorts of "button binds" (mapping multiple inputs to a single button) shouldn't be legal for tournament play, since real arcades didn't have them. Now, even top pro players use them when playing on console.

Clash of the Titans

Back to the winners bracket, Infiltration and Xian’s triumphant plays against the Japanese giants that stood in their respective paths set up a potentially climactic semifinal showdown between the Evo 2012 champion and the Evo 2013 champion. This was one that fans had been waiting a long time to see.

During his championship run at Evo 2013, Xian did not have to face Infiltration, who had been beating Xian consistently during the earlier part of 2013. After Evo 2013, the two would not play until Topanga World League. Xian prevailed that time, but the result was not very satisfying, as Infiltration lost the first several games using Chun-Li instead of his signature Akuma.

Through the first two rounds at Capcom Cup 2014, neither had used their signature character yet, but there would be no gamesmanship now in this match between arguably the two greatest Street Fighter IV players of the post-Daigo era, as they both went straight to their mains.

http://youtu.be/Zf9e_32uoIA

Infiltration had some dominant sequences, but Xian gutted it out with his indomitable will. It was a great end-to-end match that lived up to all expectations, except that it was probably too short—a complaint that the competitors and spectators alike shared about the tournament's best-of-3 format.

***

Above were my personal top 5 stories of Capcom Cup 2014. But perhaps you’d like to know who actually won the tournament? Read on, then, for coverage of the final matches.

Losers Semi-Final

When a double-elimination bracket is down to the final four competitors—two left on the winners side, two on the losers side—the match between the losers is formally referred to as “losers semi-final.” At Capcom Cup 2014, it would be Infiltration facing off against Momochi for a guaranteed place in the top 3 (and the money).

Of his opponent, I recall Infiltration once saying, “Ken is easy, but Momochi is hard.” The compliment perhaps belied the South Korean’s dominant record against the Japanese Ken player.

http://youtu.be/pkUG_lqhWsk

The instant Momochi landed that raw Focus Attack to open the first round, I could sense that the match was already over. That Momochi would even go for such a brash maneuver showed that he was still on fire from his crazy comeback against Ryan Hart (which, despite how I’ve presented it on this page, actually took place right before this match). It’s another example of a play that comes out of nowhere and leaves the opponent stunned with the impression that you must be psychic. Infiltration began playing with too much respect, and Momochi was getting away with everything. When Momochi did it again in the second game, it was clear that he had gotten into Infiltration’s head.

Winners Final

On the other side, in the match between the final two in the winners bracket, it was a contest between this year’s Evo champion and last year’s.

As the winner of Evo 2014 (and about a half-dozen other big tournaments this year), Olivier “Luffy” Hay entered Capcom Cup as the No.1 seed, with more than twice as many ranking points as the next closest person. Seeding Capcom Cup based purely on ranking points may not have been the fairest or most sensible approach, as the distribution of events on the Capcom Pro Tour clearly favored some regions over others. This meant that a player could potentially work very hard, collecting many ranking points to earn a high seed, only to be paired up in the first round against a very tough Japanese opponent, who ended up with a low seed only because they didn’t travel to US events.

For Luffy, the brackets did actually work out quite favorably, as he had a leisurely path through to the winners final, beating a Blanka (the weakest character represented in the tournament), US Rufus player Ricky Ortiz (not pegged by anyone to be a factor at Capcom Cup), and longtime rival Ryan Hart (whom Luffy had not lost to in months). His opponent now was a different story. Among other achievements, Evo 2013 champion Xian had the distinction of having been the only player to notch a victory over Luffy at Evo 2014. The match had not been streamed, so nobody was sure how it had played out or how close it had been, which only fueled anticipation for this rematch.

http://youtu.be/RG4_kIc9q44

It went back and forth, but Xian ultimately prevailed convincingly, proving that his previous victory over Luffy was no fluke.

Losers Final

Xian’s win sent Luffy down to the losers side to face Momochi, a player whom Luffy had soundly defeated at Evo 2014.

http://youtu.be/1N9jimQdR4c

There would be no repeat of Evo 2014. Normally one of the most confident players in the world, Luffy still looked deflated from his loss to Xian, while Momochi was coming in hot from his victories over Ryan Hart and Infiltration.

Grand Final

In the Capcom Cup 2014 grand final, we had, on the winners side, last year’s runner-up, Xian, who, after the Ultra edition nerfs to Gen had some counting him out, was looking very impressive, defeating three Evo champions in a row. His opponent, coming from the losers side, was Momochi, a top 10 player in Japan through the entire life of the Street Fighter IV series. Although never the most exciting competitor, he had the ability and experience to contend with any other player in Japan, which obviously meant he could hang with anyone in the world.

Although Momochi’s Ken had beaten Xian’s Gen pretty badly in their last encounter at South East Asia Major 2014 in June, Xian had already proven his astuteness in learning from his losses, so now we just had to see what he might have figured out about the Ken match. Also, unlike the rest of the tournament, the grand final was best-of-5, plus Xian had an extra set to give, since he was coming from the winners side, so there would be at least a few games for him to experiment with.

http://youtu.be/_eOujn4XoY4

The Poison pick showed some promise, but, honestly, after a while, it started to feel like Xian was playing in slow motion, because Momochi seemed able to see his every move coming a mile away. That was actually how most of Momochi's opponents had looked all day, except for Ryan Hart.

Unfortunately for Xian, things did not get better when he switched back to Gen. Until Gen can score a knockdown, the character's only real approach is with his crouching medium punch. Once Momochi got the lead in any round, this move would be all he had to look for to defend against, which, with him somehow slowing down time, was no trouble at all. That left Xian with no other option except to toss up random prayers in the form of unsafe jump-ins. Xian landed a few, but it’s equivalent to an American football team having to go Hail Mary every possession; the odds just aren't going to work out in your favor in the long run.

To be honest, I found it to be a very anticlimactic finish. After some great moments (Ryan Hart's comebacks, Xian's Dhalsim pick, PR Balrog's Red Focus), Momochi ended up taking it with very little drama. Technically, he's a superb player with no apparent flaws to be exploited. In the matches I've seen him lose before, it was usually because he was not, in that moment, as mentally or emotionally tough as his opponent. That wasn't happening on this day. After his Ultra Combo comeback against Ryan Hart, he must have been feeling close to invincible. I don't have much else to say about his play. It’s like watching the San Antonio Spurs win the NBA Championship. They don't do scintillating; they just play the game the right way and come out on top. But, at the end of the day, they don’t have LeBron James or any other superstar that you would seriously pay money to see, so what is any of it worth to the viewer?

***

Looking Ahead to 2015

Capcom Cup 2014 closed with a trailer and demo for Street Fighter V, still a long way off from completion.

http://youtu.be/jYC3IKFxqpw

Maybe the most stunning moment of the entire event, however, was the announcement concerning the future of Capcom Cup and the Capcom Pro Tour. First, producer Yoshinori Ono confirmed that the tour would be happening again in 2015—a nice early heads-up to competitors and tournament organizers to start planning out their schedules. Then, addressing Street Fighter V being console-exclusive to the PlayStation 4, he stressed how beneficial the partnership with Sony was going to be for everyone (yes, at an event that had, naturally, just been conducted entirely on Xbox 360, because the PS3 version of the game had been rejected as laggy). Elaborating, he proceeded to drop the bombshell that next year’s prize pool would be upped to $500,000.

There are a lot of questions that still need answering before people lose their minds over this. Is that money going to be split between only the top 3 at Capcom Cup 2015? Is it going to be spread out across events over the entire season? Will it be in the form of US dollars or in Sony Store credit?

In a best-case scenario, this could be a game-changer. I mentioned at the start of this post that the $50,000 prize pool for Capcom Cup 2014 was already the biggest ever for a single tournament. If next year’s purse really is ten times that amount, that would be money that not even the most decorated of the competitors at this year’s event has ever seen before. How might that affect the fighting game community? Could this be the beginning of true professional play in Street Fighter—top players (plural, so not just Daigo!) competing as their full-time jobs, not merely paying the bills but actually living enviably off the winnings? With this much money at stake, might some of the spirit of fun be lost, everybody becoming much more cutthroat? How will this affect the competitive scenes for other fighting games? Will all the Mortal Kombat and Guilty Gear players promptly abandon those games to go full-time Street Fighter and vie for the real money?

It’s not even certain yet what game(s) will be the focus of Capcom Cup 2015. It’s unlikely that Street Fighter V will be out anywhere near in time, so I’m guessing we’ll be seeing another year at least of Ultra Street Fighter IV. That extra time should grant players a deeper understanding of the game, thereby producing yet higher-level competition for next year, but, really, this is, at its core, a game that is already now more than six years old. An extra-large cash incentive is probably what’s necessary to motivate bored players to continue to take it seriously. But, even then, what version? Maybe the upcoming PS4 port? It’s hard to imagine Sony putting so much money into the tour, if it were to continue to run on Xbox 360. But it’s even harder to imagine all the players and all the event hosts ponying up the dough for expensive new PS4 setups and joysticks (unless part of the $500,000 will be going toward covering that).

Some of these questions should be answered shortly, and the others, we'll have to wait and see.

Friday, December 12, 2014

After ten long months of grueling competition through more than a hundred tournaments in over twenty countries and also online, all roads will converge this Saturday, December 13, at The Warfield in San Francisco, where the sixteen most distinguished players during this year’s Capcom Pro Tour will assemble to finally settle things in Ultra Street Fighter IV at the 2014 Capcom Cup.

Whereas last year’s Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012 championship included a mere eight competitors, each of whom had to qualify by winning a different major tournament from the second half of the year, this year twice as many spots were up for grabs, with a few different routes to qualification. First, a select ten tournaments deemed the biggest in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and spread out from March to the very end of November, were granted “Premier Tournament” status on the Capcom Pro Tour. Victory at any of these ten competitions earned the winner a ticket straight into Capcom Cup. The remaining spots, then, would be given to the next six players who had accumulated the most ranking points on the Capcom Pro Tour. Placing in the top 16 at any Premier Tournament earned a player ranking points according to their performance. Besides just the ten Premier Tournaments, however, there were more than forty additional “Tier 2” events granted “Ranking Tournament” status. Ranking Tournaments offered fewer points than Premier Tournaments, but the sheer number of Ranking Tournaments meant that a player who entered a lot and performed consistently well could amass a lot of points without necessarily having to win a major. Finally, there was the “Street Fighter Online Series,” which consisted of 28 online tournaments, each worth “Tier 3” points, open to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 players in the Americas and Europe.

***

Qualifier #1: Ryan Hart

The UK's Ryan Hart has been the most famous player in Europe for over a decade. He was one of the first Europeans to travel beyond his home continent to compete. Internationally, he made his name in 3-D fighters, such as Tekken and Virtua Fighter, as pretty much the one guy in the world who could go toe-to-toe with the South Korean giants. But Hart goes wherever the competition is, and these days he is known for having been one of Europe’s top 3 Street Fighter IV players throughout the life of the game.

Hart was the first player to qualify for Capcom Cup 2014 back in March. He did it by winning Final Round 17 in Atlanta, GA, USA. The release of Ultra Street Fighter IV was still months away, so this first Premier Tournament was conducted on Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012. To win, Hart had to get past South Korea’s Infiltration and NorCal’s PR Balrog. Although primarily a Sagat player, he foiled the former by shrewdly picking Yun as a hard counter to Infiltration's Akuma, then impressively turned back the freight train that was PR Balrog.

Hart followed up his Final Round victory with another big win in the US, taking Chicago’s Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 10 in May. He remained a consistent performer through the remainder of the Capcom Pro Tour, almost always placing 2nd or 3rd at European events. Still the No. 2 player in Europe, he has been a distant second since Evo, however, to longtime French rival, Luffy, whom he has not been able to defeat in a tournament in months. The transition to Ultra Street Fighter IV has clearly hurt Hart, and he has openly expressed his frustration with the changes to Sagat, raising serious questions as to his mental preparedness for Capcom Cup.

2014 Accomplishments:

Final Round 17 (2014) - WinnerUFGT 10 (2014) - Winner

***

Qualifier #2: PR Balrog

NorCal-based Puerto Rican player Eduardo “PR Balrog” Perez has been the most successful Balrog user through the entire Street Fighter IV series. At both Evo 2012 and Evo 2013, he was the highest-placing American, getting 3rd and 4th respectively, leading quite a few analysts to declare him the best player in the US. The Japanese even invited him to be the American representative at this year’s Topanga World League, to compete against the best players in Asia.

PR Balrog qualified for Capcom Cup through the second Premier Tournament, April’s NorCal Regionals in Sacramento, CA, USA, where he bested Infiltration for the third time in as many events this year. Their rivalry having taken off with some classic bouts at Evo 2013, PR Balrog has continually proven himself one of the few US players ready to hang with the Evo 2012 champion. Unintimidated by Infiltration’s record and seeming aura of invincibility, PR Balrog treated him as he would any other player, which is maybe what gave him an edge. His aggressive play style was not so much disrespectful as it was fearless, but, either way, it got him the win.

PR Balrog's results declined somewhat after the tour transitioned to Ultra Street Fighter IV. In what was increasingly a trend among top players, he picked up an alternate character, Evil Ryu, to complement his main character, Balrog. Evil Ryu is undoubtedly one of the strongest characters in Ultra Street Fighter IV, whose overpowering offensive tools should suit PR Balrog’s play style. Still, some analysts feel that splitting time between Balrog and Evil Ryu has diluted PR Balrog’s potency.

2014 Accomplishments:

NorCal Regionals 2014 - WinnerFinal Round 17 - Runner-Up

***

Qualifier #3: Momochi

Yusuke Momochi has never been the most explosive of players, but his fundamentals with Ken are among the most solid of any player even in his home country of Japan. It is his strong core game that has allowed him to place highly in Japan's last two elite Topanga A League invitationals. He sees through flashier players' gimmicks and takes them to school.

That is precisely what he did to Ryota "Kazunoko" Inoue at South East Asia Major in June, the third Premier Tournament on the Capcom Pro Tour, and the first to be conducted on Ultra Street Fighter IV. Against the world's preeminent user of Yun, the game's greatest offensive powerhouse, Momochi kept his cool, cooled off his opponent, and managed to take control and impose his own pace against a character that should have been much faster than his own.

Momochi had no other major victories in 2014, but he did make Top 8 at Evo and finished 2nd in the 4th Topanga A League. Also one of the most versatile players, he does have other characters to cover his bases for potential matchups at Capcom Cup. If the situation calls for it, he can go from Ken to Juri for a little more juice. The opponent he'll probably most have to look out for is the next guy on this list.

Two years ago, a nigh-invincible Seonwoo "Infiltration" Lee had the most dominant season in Street Fighter IV’s competitive history. He was a problem that nobody could solve, but for the occasional Cammy player. He was not quite as much a terror in 2013, but still, any time he entered a tournament, the other players understood that they would need to have a solution to him, if they were to have any hope of coming away with the trophy. As Japanese pro player Hajime “Tokido” Taniguchi put it, “The path of victory goes through Infiltration. If you want to win any major, you must defeat him.”

Heading into Community Event Orlando (CEO), the fourth Premier Tournament on the Capcom Pro Tour, the South Korean was coming off back-to-back victories in the first Ultra Street Fighter IV competitions of the tour, including wins against both recent nemesis PR Balrog and also Ryan Hart, whose Yun pick did not work a second time. At CEO 2014, Infiltration's own path to the Capcom Cup ticket would take him through Justin Wong, PR Balrog, and Ricky Ortiz, the top three players in the US, who were all sponsored by Evil Geniuses. Infiltration used three different characters to beat the US members of Team Evil Genius, then punctuated his victory by utterly breaking the team's Japanese ringer, Momochi, in a grand final with mainly pride at stake (the rules did not permit Momochi to "double-qualify," so the Capcom Cup spot would be going to Infiltration, no matter the result of their match).

Entering Evo 2014 two weeks later as the No. 1 seed, Infiltration would finish disappointingly tied for 25th. He then took most of the rest of the year off from competition, which leaves him an ominous question mark for Capcom Cup. There’s no telling what form he’ll be in on Saturday, but if he’s at his best, there may not be anyone who can beat him.

Although we wouldn't know it until much later, Justin Wong’s 5th-place finish at CEO would be enough to get him into Capcom Cup via ranking points. He earned most of his points from Ranking Tournaments in the US during the first half of the year, when the tour was still running on Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012, and he never really contended for a Premier Tournament ticket after Ultra Street Fighter IV came out. He experimented for a period with playing as new character Elena, but has since gone back to playing Rufus almost exclusively. Rumor is, he’s got another character that he’s been saving just for Capcom Cup.

Justin will be an underdog, for sure, but the Evo 2009 runner-up should never be underestimated. His triumph in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at Evo 2014 showed what he’s capable of when he really dedicates himself to a single goal, and now that the scene for that game has gone quiet after Evo, Justin has been able to focus all his competitive energies on training for Ultra Street Fighter IV and Capcom Cup 2014.

The premier Rose specialist in the world (and, for a long time, just about the only one in international competition), France's Olivier "Luffy" Hay has long been one of the strongest Street Fighter IV players in Europe, but this year saw him take his game to another level. He qualified for Capcom Cup by winning an even bigger event.

At Evo 2014, Luffy ran through a veritable Topanga A League of Japanese players, en route to a final showdown against the 3rd Topanga A League winner himself, Sagat master Masato "Bonchan" Takahashi. The bracket may actually have worked out in Luffy's favor in the grand final, however, as he brought with him countless battles' worth of experience against one of the best Sagat players in the world in Ryan Hart, whereas Bonchan had never faced a Rose that was anywhere near Luffy's level.

Luffy's victory at Evo 2014 would be only the beginning. He would go on to win more tournaments than any other player in 2014, proving that there was nothing random about his victory at Evo. Even against the big Japanese names, he'll surely head into Saturday as one of the favorites. Heck, he already beat most of them at Evo, so he's not likely going to be intimidated at the prospect of running into any of them here. The biggest threat to him may be Xian, who was the only player to take a match from Luffy at Evo 2014, after having defeated him at Evo the previous year as well.

On the Capcom Pro Tour, Evo was its own tier beyond even the Premier Tournaments. The winner would get an instant ticket to Capcom Cup, of course, but additionally the ranking points at stake were four times as many as at regular Premier Tournaments. For coming in 2nd, Bonchan received 512 ranking points—easily enough to qualify him for a spot at Capcom Cup. The world's greatest Sagat player continued to add to his points total, however, by placing highly at event after event in arguably the most competitive region in the world. His record definitely makes a strong case for him being the best player of 2014.

If he has one weakness, however, it would perhaps be his inability to adapt quickly enough when facing unfamiliar matchups. Reviewing the Evo 2014 grand final against Luffy, it was clear that Bonchan was completely lost on how to approach the Rose match. At the Mad Catz Tokyo Game Show Tournament in September, Bonchan again went virtually unchallenged on his way to the final through a field including every top Japanese player, before running into one Yudai “Pepeday” Furushima, a walk-on entrant from the remote southernmost island of Japan. For all his honed skill with Sagat, it was once again clear that Bonchan had no idea what was going on in this match against this hidden El Fuerte master, and, even in a longer first-to-5 set, he could not figure Pepeday out.

Before anybody gets to thinking that Bonchan simply chokes in grand finals, I'll add that he did dominate September’s Thaiger Uppercut, one of the biggest double-elimination tournaments in Asia. Against such known competitors as Xian and Itazan, who could not surprise him, Bonchan had no trouble at all. For Capcom Cup, he has also vowed to be ready this time for the Rose match. Unless any of the other qualifiers have new tricks saved up just for him, he may well end up running over the field.

Valentin "Valmaster" Petit of France is perhaps the greatest Chun-Li player active right now. He first drew international recognition toward the tail end of Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012, a Chun-Li specialist at a time when the character had gone nearly extinct at the tournament level and was regarded as among the weakest in the game. Rather like Evo champions Luffy and Xian, Valmaster emerged then as a singular specialist maximizing a seldom-seen character perceived as mid-tier at best, and so excelling with her that public estimation of the character became almost solely determined by the one player’s performance with her. In Europe, to say that Chun-Li is a threat is really to mean that Valmaster is a threat with her.

Valmaster's breakthrough major victory came in March at Hypespotting 3 in Scotland against Ryan Hart, and he followed that up with an impressive performance at Stunfest, where he defeated Japanese fighting game god Tatsuya Haitani. One of the best players not present at Evo 2014, Valmaster's first major in Ultra Street Fighter IV would be VSFighting 4 in Birmingham, UK, one of Europe's two Premier Tournaments, where he became the player to snap Luffy's post-Evo winning streak.

Valmaster will go into Capcom Cup having never faced most of the other competitors. Thus, it will be hard to call many of his potential matchups, especially in a best-of-3 format. His first-round opponent happens to be Xian, however, who has faced and beaten him before.

2014 Accomplishments:

VSFighting 4 - WinnerHypespotting 3 - WinnerStunfest 2014 - 3rd Place

***

Qualifier #9: Xian

One of the most technically skilled players in the world, Ho Kun Xian of Singapore was the first and still only player to win majors with Gen, perhaps the most execution-intensive character in the game. Last year, Xian played that character so far beyond anyone else's understanding that he made winning Evo 2013 look effortless, when in fact it was a lot of hard work. That probably led to Gen being unfairly weakened in Ultra Street Fighter IV, and, in 2014, along with some of Gen's tools went a bit of Xian's confidence.

Xian struggled early in Ultra Street Fighter IV against the Japanese players at South East Asia Major, which was actually his home major (it was hosted by Tough Cookie TV, the gaming cafe that Xian manages). He started to find his form again after Evo, however, winning Ranking Tournaments in South Korea, Vietnam, and Singapore. By the time he made the trip out to The Fall Classic in Raleigh, NC, USA to try to win a direct entry to Capcom Cup, he was already close to a lock on points anyway. Xian proceeded to steamroll through the field while barely dropping a game on his way to the grand final. He left little doubt that he was still one of the strongest players in the world, as he crushed Sanford Kelly’s Oni with new alternate character Poison, then doused Dudley specialist Smug, who was usually one of the hottest and most entertaining players on the tour.

The victory over Smug secured Xian enough ranking points to guarantee a spot at Capcom Cup, but he still wanted to go one step further and win a Premier Tournament. Standing in his way, unfortunately, was Snake Eyez.

The two memorably played one another at Evo 2014, and, although it was close, it was apparent that the defending champion was not comfortable with the Zangief match. Snake Eyez took it, and then Xian had the misfortune to run into another Zangief player, Japan’s Hiromiki “Itazan” Kumada, who eliminated him in the losers bracket. Two months later, at Thaiger Uppercut, Xian lost to Itazan again, thoroughly exposing the Evo 2013 champ’s weakness to this character. Against Snake Eyez at The Fall Classic, Xian lost to Zangief yet again. Clearly, the character is Xian's demon, and Snake Eyez will be the player he'll most hope to avoid at Capcom Cup.

The foremost Zangief player in the US, Darryl "Snake Eyez" Lewis of Southern California has been considered by many to be the highest-level Street Fighter IV player in the country. The only thing that has held him back from winning more major tournaments has been the number of near insurmountable mismatches that his character faces against hard counters, such as Sagat and Dhalsim. In 2014, with the release of Ultra Street Fighter IV having brought with it some improvements to Zangief, however, Snake Eyez has been having a banner year.

At Evo 2014, Snake Eyez made it all the way to 4th, the highest-placing American. He only seemed to grow in strength after that, and pretty soon there could be no argument anymore that he was the best in the nation. He has been handily defeating Justin Wong and Ricky Ortiz on a consistent basis, becoming the top-ranked US player on the Capcom Pro Tour leaderboard. With his victory over Xian at The Fall Classic, he also became (along with PR Balrog) only the second American to win a Premiere Tournament.

Even as Snake Eyez is Xian's demon, however, the Zangief player may have to face his own demon at Capcom Cup in the form of Fuudo. The Japanese Fei Long player has won all of their previous encounters, thwarting Snake Eyez at the Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Tournament and again at Evo 2014.

The very same weekend as The Fall Classic, October hosted the finals of the Taito Arcade Nationals in Japan. The Japanese national championship for Ultra Street Fighter IV, this was, for the Japanese, maybe as coveted a prize as either Evo or Capcom Cup itself, for which it served as a Premier Tournament. Like Capcom Cup, it was conducted in stages, with regional qualifiers before the national finals, and it was held entirely on arcade, making it a true purist’s dream tournament. Yet the final result was more baffling than anything else.

The No. 1 Blanka specialist in the world, Hiroshi "Nishikin" Nishikido was a known player, but his record did nothing to suggest that his character was anything but bottom-tier. US stream watchers would remember him from CEO 2014, where he got perfected by Smug and then eliminated by Infiltration, who was using Hakan, one of his tertiary characters.

How this guy took the national championship, ahead of Bonchan, Momochi, Daigo, Kazunoko and the rest, is a riddle. Even watching the matches that Nishikin won at the Taito Arcade Nationals doesn’t really clear anything up. His character is gimmicks, and not even anything too out-of-control, but just parlor tricks that work the first time and probably shouldn’t be tried a second (and, to Nishikin’s credit, he seems to recognize this). We’ll see if his bag of tricks goes deep enough to carry him through Capcom Cup. Definitely the long shot, if nothing else, Nishikin could play spoiler by winning in the first round against No. 1 seed Luffy, who likely does not have as much experience with Blanka as he does fighting the other qualifiers’ characters.

2014 Accomplishments:

Taito Arcade Nationals - WinnerWECG 2014 Japan Qualifier - Winner

***

Qualifier #12: Chuchu

Elsewhere, the news out of South America was that one Eric Moreira “Chuchu” Silva had won the Ranking Tournament at Brazil Game Show 2014, thereby guaranteeing himself a qualification spot at Capcom Cup. For most hearing this news, the immediate reaction was a “Who?” followed by a “How?”

To most, Chuchu was an unknown player who had beaten a bunch of other unknown players at a random tournament in the middle of nowhere. So how was he qualifying ahead of players like GamerBee and K-Brad, who had traveled extensively during the Capcom Pro Tour and even won Ranking Tournaments themselves?

As it turned out, the majority of Chuchu’s ranking points came controversially from online competitions, which some pro players had early on criticized as poorly conceived, poorly publicized, poorly run. Even with online tournaments occurring almost every month, with ranking points up for grabs, very few known players bothered to enter. This created an opportunity for any high-level player who did participate in all or most of them. Recognizing that the field would likely be mediocre, a shrewd competitor could swoop in while everyone else slept and quietly win a bunch of points without ever leaving home. That is exactly what Chuchu did. He was one of only a few players to participate in nearly all of the American online tournaments, both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Now, Chuchu will enter Capcom Cup as the wildcard of the tournament. There is footage of him out there, in case the other competitors want to study up on him, but, even then, he plays Sakura, Chun-Li, and C. Viper all about equally, so it will be very hard to come up with a specific plan for dealing with him. It so happens, however, that his first-round opponent at Capcom Cup will be Infiltration, the one guy out of the entire group who has faced Chuchu before. If Chuchu was hoping to rely on the surprise factor of being the least known player, it is perhaps unfortunate that he will start off against Infiltration. On the other hand, maybe the fact that he actually beat Infiltration in their previous encounter will give him the confidence boost needed to get off to a good start.

2014 Accomplishments:

Brazil Game Show 2014 - WinnerWinner of 4 Street Fighter Online Series Tournaments

***

Qualifier #13: Ricky Ortiz

Like fellow Rufus player and Team Evil Genius member Justin Wong, Ricky Ortiz started the year quite strong, winning multiple Ranking Tournaments in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012, but then fell off somewhat as the tour wore on. The Evo 2010 runner-up did have a very impressive run at Evo, which included a victory over Capcom Cup 2013 champion Naoto Sako, but afterward she had to grind along all the way to the final Ranking Tournament, traveling down to Thunderstruck in Monterrey, Mexico to collect some free points to just barely qualify.

Also, Ricky began to openly identify as female this year—news that probably slipped by anyone who only watches the games and not the players' Twitter accounts. Maybe she prefers that this be considered separately from her professional gaming, which is why this wasn't made into a bigger story. The lack of reporting did cause many people, myself included, to make asses of ourselves by continuing to refer to Ricky using masculine pronouns for months before we got the memo.

In any event, Ricky will be an underdog at Capcom Cup, but at least she is now the strongest female player in the world by a fair margin.

A player who needs no introduction, Evo 2009 and 2010 champion Daigo Umehara was the competitor most conspicuously (and, for spectators, disappointingly) absent from last year's Capcom Cup.

2014 has so far not proven quite the comeback year he might have hoped for. He started strong by winning the Topanga World League. Then, with the release of Ultra Street Fighter IV, he switched from his longstanding main of Ryu to arguably the new strongest character in the game, Evil Ryu, and quickly rose to the top of the Japanese arcade rankings. But Daigo was not able to win at any of the major elimination tournaments on his selective schedule. After his earliest exit ever at an Evo, he rejoined the Capcom Pro Tour fairly late, but just in time to contend in the Capcom Pro Tour Asia Series, a group of Ranking Tournaments that then culminated in a Premier Tournament.

In the grand final, Daigo faced off against Xian, who was playing with house money at this point. The Evo 2013 champ had already secured his Capcom Cup spot via ranking points, but still his performance here could have had a huge influence in shaping Capcom Cup 2014. Xian was still eligible to receive the direct ticket, so if he had won here, it would have slammed the door shut on Daigo's chances at entering Capcom Cup, as Daigo had not accumulated enough points to qualify except by winning a Premier Tournament. But, of course, Daigo did win, and in convincing fashion over Xian.

Even when he's not having the most consistent season, it's always hard to bet against Daigo, especially in a tournament like Capcom Cup, where he'll know ahead of time all of the opponents he might have to face. Daigo completely dominated the CPT Asia Series Finals and the 4th Topanga A League, which were both closed-entry competitions.

2014 Accomplishments:

Topanga World League - Winner4th Topanga A League - WinnerCPT Asia Series - WinnerNo. 1 Player on Japanese Arcade Rankings

***

Qualifier #15: NuckleDu

Florida teenager Du “NuckleDu” Dang was the only player to qualify for Capcom Cup without winning even a Ranking Tournament. He is not an unknown, as he travels quite regularly to events in the US, and he also qualified last year for the Street Fighter X Tekken championship at Capcom Cup. But, like Chuchu, more than half of his points this year came from online tournaments. Indeed, he leapfrogged GamerBee and other players in the rankings very suddenly and very late in the game by winning the final two American online tournaments on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

NuckleDu’s most impressive performance was probably his match against Pepeday at The Fall Classic, where he turned the tables on the master of the esoteric El Fuerte by playing Decapre, a character that the Japanese player had probably never encountered before at a high level.

NuckleDu’s primary character, however, is Guile. One of the best Guile players in the world, he plays the character quite a bit differently from others, favoring an aggressive style that would seem to run counter to the character’s entire design philosophy. One of NuckleDu’s signature moves is Guile’s “Shades of Glory,” where Guile puts on sunglasses, which then stay on for the round unless the player performs the move again to take them off. To be clear, this is a taunt, nothing more; it has no practical use. I can’t think of any other top player who would dare to perform a taunt in a real match, but NuckleDu does it all the time, including this year on the Evo main stage, generating quite the reaction from the crowd.

Without actually digging up the stats, I'd wager that NuckleDu has either a losing record or none at all against each of the other players qualified for Capcom Cup. But I'd also guess that that doesn't bother the young showman.

The final qualifier, Keita "Fuudo" Ai, made it in by winning the last Premier Tournament, DreamHack Winter in Jönköping, Sweden just two weeks before Capcom Cup.

For the Evo 2011 champ, this was a year of mixed results. Fuudo finished a very strong 3rd at Evo 2014, but then performed abysmally in the 4th Topanga A League, finishing dead last. He did not travel very much this year, and seemed to have no interest in joining in the hunt for Capcom Pro Tour points. It was really quite unexpected when he was added at the last minute to DreamHack Winter, and it was kind of heartbreaking when he took the spot by defeating GamerBee, who had worked so hard all year long to try to qualify.

But that's Fuudo in a nutshell. He's a crushingly indiscriminate combatant, dominating with a complete disregard for who his opponent might be. His character might be, on paper, the strongest in the game, and Fuudo's exceedingly patient, systematic play style represents the most perfect distillation of Fei Long's strengths. Fei Long's excellent poking attacks control the ground, while Fuudo's unparalleled reflexes make jumping in on him almost impossible. Winning is consequently almost automatic to him. Beating him requires more than just training and scouting; it takes some inspired play.

That said, the opponent Fuudo will definitely want to avoid is Luffy, who, at Evo 2014, crushed all three of the top Asian Fei Long players, Fuudo included. I don't think Luffy has lost to that character in a tournament in years.

2014 Accomplishments:

Evo 2014 - 3rd PlaceDreamHack Winter 2014 - Winner

***

Finally, just for fun, my prediction for the final: Infiltration over Daigo.